As far back as I can remember there has always been an amnesty on firearms in this country, take any "gun" into your local copshop and they will happily destroy it for youI've done it myself with a crappy little cheap 22 that I got at an auction for the suppressor and didn't need the rest of it clogging up valuable safe room - only worth about $25 so out she went

Leaving aside the undue haste with which this process has been conducted, those of us who know a little bit about guns (and rifles too) observe that the way the committee have thrown their rope around each category has not been very smart and has lead toa- several firearms that are not being included that could fall into the "scary black gun" category - after all, we know what y'all are really after is a largely aesthetic decision as you can rapid fire anything if you practice enoughb- several firearms that have been included that fall into the "Grandpappys old popgun" category ie tube mag 22s

This is leading to lot of confusion which is not helpful

Also, the police wish to administer some sort or registration system - there was one before and there is one now - I am on itAll Licensees with endorsements for pistols (B) and formerly semiauto MSSAs (E) and collectors (C) are on itI have these endorsements and get inspected every few months

My point is this - Police so very regularly get things wrong on this register that it has become a standing joke so going on what they are doing now I wouldn't trust the police to run a bigger register in the future (remember INCIS?)They gave me 2 licenses and I have met people with 5 - other people get someone else's photo on their license, you get the ideaIf I had to surrender one license for some crime I could do it and then take the other one and buy as many firearms as my credit card would allow

This is not a well-run system, and please note that before the Chch massacre the police wanted to shift inspections off to a glorified call centre in Paraparaumu, further weakening the system

The only reason John and Jane Citizen should give a shit is it is YOUR tax dollars going to waste and unless they offer a handsome sum for the confiscation planned then you will not get ARs off the streets

This confiscation is going to be expensive if it is to work and there are a LOT of firearms out there - I've only got about 20 and I know people with hundreds

Alternatively they will do it in typical NZ fashion as Peter Jackson put it - "a dollar short and a day late" and it will fail to achieve the objective

Yes, I know people who have more than 100 firearms each, at least 4 personally

Predominant group skews older white male and tend to have a lot of hair growing out of their ears and have never had a girlfriend - sounds like some sort of tramping club but seriously they are out there and have always been out there peaceably going about their business- there are a LOT more firearms in this country I reckon than most people think - there's still the odd old WW2 Luger pistol unregistered floating about

The thing about FAL owners that looks dodgy on the surface is that we/they tend towards being secretive because we are worried about being a target for gangs and burglaries - another reason not to trust ol plod with a database

Look there are departments that can do it okish - Internal Affairs with passports run a pretty tight ship IMO

I do not wish to be a shopping list item for some fried up P-head and I do not trust plod to keep my info secure

Please note also that those of us who are lawful police the others somewhat-I have seized an illegal rifle off a friend and told him to get a license before he can have it back - he hasn't and I've got rid of it now but this is not an unusual incident - I have been asked to referee for someone else and said that they should not have a licenseAs a community we keep an eye on each other

Go back to the original sin (other than Mr wankface pulling the trigger) - who vetted him, who witnessed for him?Word I hear is that he didn't take the test in his home town, never got a home safe inspection and his referees gave almost identical statements cos he got them off a chat room No friends should be a great big warning sign

I would really like to know if this is true but I am not optimistic that the truth will out in this case

Its how you define your community that can make or break a country. I get your point about the police,they can too often turn into a quasi army enforcing clearly dangerous and stupid laws on the larger population at the behest of unscrupulous politicians. (And Im still not much of a fan of Greg O’Connor after all the bull he spouted as police spokesman.) The war on drugs, and the treatment of anti apartheid demonstrators in this country has clearly shown that. And treatment of Maori continues to shown they are not coming to grips very well with racism within their ranks. what can I or anyone say but hope as time goes on improvement comes.

You live in New Zealand while fellow gun enthusiasts may be your immediate community, the population of New Zealand is yours and all of our larger community. It dangerous to split yourself off from that, not just to others also to yourself.

Sure the CHCH shooter was an aberration, allowed to get to the situation where he could carry out his acts, in part of because of an unspoken racial bias in the police who issued his licence and they have to own up to that, something they haven t done as yet.But we all have to start caring a bit more about our wider community and not split up into sects. This is probably the only time I will use a sporting metaphor. Its not the individuals teams, its the game that is important. Ughh I have to go and wash my brain now. But thats what is important here. Sorry I hope I didnt get too preachy on you.

So now with extra regulation professional pest control will be more expensive to run and the cost will be passed on to the customers/landowners

Prioritising costs will lead to bunny control being underfunded hence more ecological damage

I fully accept that the majority has spoken regarding semis - I am sounding like Cassandra because there is a lot of taxpayers money about to go up in smoke because of hastily made and poorly thought out laws

That guy wasn't a collector, he was a crimWhat do you have against people who are firearms owners?Why do we always get this shit?I have less than zero interest in shooting anyone and yes I am aware that I have the tools but I would point out that you could be a rent boy if you wanted and yet presumably you aren'tYou could bend the car towards the school crossing and take out lots of kids and yet you don't, do you Steven?Thanks for the inclusiveness pal

Because you come to blog communities like this and argue for the right to bare arms, only weeks after a man went on a rampage with firearms. And then you express some sort of excitement about police incompetence or I don’t know what, Some mentally unstable person breaking into a police station and steeling a bunch of guns?

pest control will be more expensive to run and the cost will be passed on to the customers/landowners

Have you been going round the country doing everyones costings again, when you knew the legislation was going to be passed and you wanted the facts to back up your claims? UMM that would be a NO wouldnt it! Cant let the facts get in the way of a good scaremongering!

Prioritising costs will lead to bunny control being underfunded hence more ecological damage

Those fucking Victorians introducing those bunnies back in the day. If only they had given a thought to the ecological damage their harmless pursuit of food and sport would bring. Not great forward planners those tweedy chaps EH WOT!

Prioritising costs will lead to bunny control being underfunded hence more ecological damage

Farmers don’t kill bunnies for ecological reasons, they do it for commercial reasons, and paying someone to do it properly is a sound commercial expenditure in a real business. I’m still not really seeing the reason why military style assault rifles should be owned by anything other than a very small number of people with a very genuine business reason.

I’m not getting any kind of feel from you that this is really about pest control. It’s about the right to have those weapons because you like them. I’m sorry, that’s just too bad now.

ETA: The reason I don't feel like it's about pest control with you is that you only give the laziest of throwaways on that cost, and then all your arguments focus around the lethality of all sorts of other things that have not been banned, which is an entirely different argument. You keep coming back to that, so it's pretty clear that's really your whole actual reason for outrage. You wanted those guns and you don't intend to slaughter anyone, so therefore people owning cars who also don't intend to slaughter anyone is unfair somehow. It's not a good faith engagement, so don't expect inclusiveness.